"A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny."

"Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude."

"There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade."

"Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being."

"I always say to myself what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment."

"We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine."

"Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples."

"Few people know how to be old."

"Nothing is so infectious as example."

"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."

"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."

"The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken."

"As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing."

"We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it."

"What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them."

"The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second."

"Taste may change, but inclination never."

"When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes."

"We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes."

"Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them."

"It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills."

"The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits."

"In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that are offered."

"Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever."

"There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage."

"We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own."

"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others."

"The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them."

"The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy."

"Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route."

"Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites."

"Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding."

"Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation."

"It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever."

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it."

"Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it."

"To know how to hide one's ability is great skill."

"Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself."

"Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves."

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art."

"However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else."

"Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like."

"Jealousy is not so much the love of another as the love of ourselves."

"Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised."

"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire."

"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us."

"We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think."

"A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice."

"On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly."

"Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."